12 September 2017

The Belarusian automobile engineering company MAZ and the Chinese Weichai Power are going to build a factory to produce engines for trucks, special vehicles, and buses at the Belarus-China industrial park Great Stone. The construction will officially begin on 13 September, BelTA learned from MAZ representatives.

The factory will be owned by the joint company MAZ-Weichai co-founded by MAZ and Weichai Power. A memorandum of cooperation envisaging the construction of the diesel engine factory was signed during the Belarus president's visit to China in 2016.

The factory is going to occupy 2.5 hectares of land. MAZ-Weichai will become the park's resident company and will therefore be eligible for exemptions and preferences. The facility is expected to start rolling out the first engines in 2019.

The factory is meant to produce internal combustion engines. The joint company plans to satisfy the demand of Belarusian manufacturers for engines and penetrate the markets of the CIS and non-CIS states with its products. Weichai Power's first factory was set up in Weifang, China in 1946. The company employs over 12,000 people, including 2,500 engineers.

Weichai Power manufactures over 900,000 engines per annum. This is one of the world's largest manufacturers of engines for trucks.